Wednesday 19 March 2014

VOTOlandia!

Hello, fellow reader!

Hope all is well with you! Life here in Ghana is great as usual.  It's really crazy to think that in only 3 months, Mark and I will be hauling our massive amounts of luggage to the airport and hopping on two or three planes to return to Saskatoon.

In many ways, I'm really excited to go home for several reasons - sushi whenever I want it, all the Liberte Lemon Yogurt I could possibly dream of, and most importantly, chillin' with my family and friends.  That being said, I'm also pretty sad to be going home.  I've developed some really great friendships here, the weather is wonderful (mostly....except for those +41-with-the-humidex days where you literally just sit in your sweat the whole day and have to shower at least twice...), and the mangoes....my GOD, the mangos here are heavenly.

Also, I'm really, really, really going to miss the cats.







....REALLY going to miss them.  How can you not miss these little ones?




Meowhawwwwma

Nkrumeow hard at work.




So yes - I guess I'm feeling what they call "bittersweet" when it comes to leaving Ghana.  However, I still have 3 months left, so I might as well make the best of them!




For this post, I thought I'd show you how we live here in Ghana! We've been spending a lot more time trying to make our house, affectionately known as VOTOlandia, more of a home that we can work and play in, so now seems as good a time as ever!

A bit about the house:

It's big.  It's really big. 16-big-bedrooms-each-with-their-own-bathrooms big.  (There's a 17th bathroom on the main floor, too.) There are two kitchens, but we only use the one on the top floor.  We also have four porches - two on each floor.  The porches at the back of the house are smaller, while the front porches are very big.  We don't use them nearly as much as we should.  Overall, it's literally the biggest house I'll ever live in during my lifetime.  Check it out - this is how we do!




On the main floor of VOTOlandia is where the VOTO magic happens - in the office! Here's the team hard at work, and a variety of other office pictures.



Nkrumeow, the original office cat, checking out what's outside.

The VOTO banner and board room table, as seen from the second floor.


While Sean, Caroline, Chris, and Godwin sleep in the bedrooms downstairs, the upstairs is where the rest of us sleep and spend our recreational time.  Here's the dining area:

Where we consume food.

The cats, lazing in the hall.  The high chair is for one of our current guests, Baby Corbin!

The hall leading into the living room and to the upper front porch.


Here's one of our two kitchens! Lots of space for the 14 people that have to share it.  I love pumping music in the kitchen while preparing supper with Mark or with other housemates.


Could we have any more appliances?



Quick shot of the pantry


From the dining area you'll find the living room with epic carpet.  Sometimes we'll set up the projector and hang the projector screen in here and have movie nights.


Note: one of our roomies said they could see a swastika in the carpet.  Now I can't unsee it. 



We should use our top floor balcony for sitting and eating Sunday breakfasts, but mostly we use it to hang our clothes out to dry.  That's cool too.


The view from the balcony railing


And finally, this is Mark's and my room! It's usually messier than this, but I figured I'd tidy up a bit.  Because manners.

Our desk.  It usually has more stuff on it that we're too lazy to actually put away, and there's usually clothes hanging over the chair.  We don't have a laundry hamper. 

Not technically our bed - our much larger bed is being loaned out to our current houseguests, as they have a baby with them, and need the bigger mattress!

Meowhama lounging about in the morning.  


Our "closet" and mess by the window!



So that's it! That's where we live here in Kumasi! Maybe next time I'll take some photos of our neighbourhood and the nearby market.  Hope you enjoyed the virtual tour!

Until next time!


Jo

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